


Impossible

by masquedintentions (thatmasquedgirl)



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Episode: s06e07 A Good Man Goes to War, F/M, POV Eleventh Doctor, POV Female Character, Prompt Fill, Reunion Fic, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-11
Updated: 2014-03-11
Packaged: 2018-01-15 07:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1297240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatmasquedgirl/pseuds/masquedintentions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Demons run when a good man goes to war—because they're afraid of the impossible creature that protects the Doctor and all he holds dear.</p><p>Set during 6.7 "A Good Man Goes to War."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Impossible

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is the first Doctor Who fic I've ever posted, and I'm incredibly nervous about it. I'm just not sure about this fandom. I'm cross-posted for my main fandom (to ff.net as "thatmasquedgirl"), but this is going to be an AO3 exclusive. Anyway, comments are appreciated, if only to tell me how horrible this is. :) Please note that I'm American, not British, and there may be a slight issue word usage, and I'd love for you to point those out.
> 
> Anyway, the prompt:  
> "The universe is big. It's vast and complicated and ridiculous, and sometimes—very rarely—impossible things just happen and we call them miracles. And that's the theory. Nine hundred years, never seen one yet, but this would do me." —The Doctor, "The Pandorica Opens," Doctor Who series 5

Somewhere in time and space, a girl with a black hood pulled over her face lands, taking in her surroundings.  She is dressed all in black—black shirt under the black hooded jacket, black pants, and black combat boots—and she is unarmed with any weapon except for a small, 21st century Earth gun.  Of course it's been modified to only stun and incapacitate, but any potential threats don't need to know that.  A black backpack is slung across one shoulder.

The girl has a destination, a mission.  She's planning on rewriting time, space, and history to save him—to save the good man that doesn't always remember how good he is.  For anyone else, the act of rewriting a fixed point in time would seem impossible.

But this girl, she's seen and done impossible things, and she knows better than to believe in anything so simple-minded as impossible.

She stands, taking in her surroundings.  Good.  She's in the right place, hopefully the right time.  She doesn't think she can do many more jumps through the Vortex—too hard on her, now that she's so impossibly old.

She turns down the corridor, running through what feels like miles of long, narrow passageway.  She's memorized the blueprint of this place, knows where everything is.  She finds the room she's looking for, stopping to open it with the sonic screwdriver that gives her so many mixed memories.  Once, she didn't even know how to use it, but she's learned much since then.  She's  _lived_  much since then, too.

When the door opens, she slips into the room in a corner that's unseen through the window.  The room is white, sterile, and impersonal, with a large viewing window that gives the army below a perfect view of their prisoner.  A startled ginger woman turns around, hazel eyes wide as she shields the baby in her arms.  She's dressed in something that might be a hospital gown.

The woman in black smiles under the concealing hood of her coat.  She's found her.

The ginger woman frowns, pointing something that looks like a toothbrush at her.  "You watch it," she warns in a Scottish accent, "because I'm armed and really dangerous.  And cross."

The girl in black rolls her eyes, but of course the ginger can't see.  "You're Amy Pond, then?" she asks in a soft voice, her accent a thick Cockney.

The woman's expression turns fierce.  "Yeah, I am," she confirms, "and I'm not letting you take her."  The girl in black can only assume she's talking about the newborn in her arms.

She twists her backpack around, pulling out a fresh set of clothes.  "Put these on," she demands, throwing them toward her, "and come with me."

Amy clearly isn't going to just follow orders, and the girl understands why he chose her.  Her mouth is set in defiance as she blatantly ignores the clothes in front of her.

The girl in black sighs before explaining shortly, "Look, the Doctor called all his debts in across the universe, yeah?"

Amy nods, confirming this.  "The soldiers have been talking about it."

"Well," the girl continues, "I don't owe the Doctor anything.  We're old friends.  So if you want to get out of here with your daughter, I suggest you stop askin' questions and bloody well follow me."

Amy huffs before settling the child back in her crib, stopping to pull on the clothes.  She pulls her daughter close again, but the girl in black offers her a papoose.  "Take this," she offers again.  Under her hood, she smiles as Amy fastens her daughter in it securely, cradling the child to her chest.  "We're going to be doin' a lot of runnin'."

With that, she grabs Amy's hand, pulling her along as she navigates the corridors.

 

* * *

 

_Demons run when a good man goes to war._

When the Doctor hears the alarm go off, from under the cloak he'd taken from the headless monks, he knows things have gone horribly wrong, impossibly fast.  They aren't supposed to know he's there—well, not yet, anyway.

The army is gathering in the main encampment, and Colonel Manton isn't the only one present.  Kovarian herself is there, and she does not look happy.  But the Doctor takes his place beside the headless monks, attempting to stay camouflaged if they haven't taken notice yet.

"They've taken the girl and the child," she states angrily.  "They will pass through here.  And you are to stop them.  Incapacitate the enemy at any costs.  Retrieve the girl and the child at once, but do not harm them."

The Doctor, for once in his life, is floored by the revelation.  Quietly, he says into his earpiece communicator, "What's happened?"  He's ignored by the soldiers around him in the commotion.

The first response comes, predictably, from Jack Harkness.  "Wasn't me, I swear," he says, with more trepidation than the Doctor is used to hearing in his voice.

Rory responds, "It wasn't us," gravely, and the rest of his makeshift army reports similarly.

The Doctor frowns under the signature cloak he took from a headless monk.  Something is wrong here—very wrong.  Someone is working alone, possibly against him, but definitely against Kovarian.  He is panicked, he is angry, and he is very, very confused, but he is sure he'll get to the end of this impossible situation.

He's failed far too many people in the past, and he'll be damned if he'll fail Amy again.

 

* * *

 

The girl in black hears the evil woman's laconic speech, and she knows they're caught.  And that's good—that's very good, in fact.  Because the girl is one of two people that should never be put in a trap.  Not because she's brilliant or anything—that's the Doctor's place, to be brilliant—but because she's like nothing they've ever seen before.  And that makes her dangerous—impossibly dangerous.

She stops suddenly, pulling Amy up alongside.  "Listen to me very carefully," she whispers urgently, "they know you're gone.  They know someone's infiltrated, and they're going to try to stop us both."  She pants a bit before continuing.  "But the Doctor is here, and he'll no doubt be in the main encampment, in the thick of things.  I'm going to need you to walk in there—"

Amy cuts her off.  "Are you  _mad?!_   We can't go in there!  It's impossible to escape from that platform!  You don't even know the Doctor's here!  They'll just capture—"

The girl puts a finger to Amy's lips to silence her.  "I know the Doctor's here because I can sense the TARDIS," she snaps quietly.  "And I know that Kovarian will capture you again, but I need you to do something for me.  I need you to do as I say."  She pauses, summoning the depth of her charisma.  "Amy Pond, I need you to trust me."

"And why should I?" the woman snaps back.

The girl smiles under the hood of her jacket, deciding she likes this woman very much because she's not one to follow orders without reason.  "Because the Doctor trusted me once—a long, long time ago.  And when he did, I nearly killed myself to save his life."  Amy looks surprised, and the girl can't blame her; very few people get the opportunity to save the Doctor.  "And I'm going to do the same for you, Amy, because he loves you and I love him."  When she sees she has Amy's full cooperation, she continues, "Now here's what I need you to do…"

 

* * *

 

Interrupting the sound of the army gathering and preparing is a loud, cheerful, "Hello!" said in a Scottish voice, and the Doctor can feel his hearts stop beating for a moment and he's pretty sure his stomach is somewhere in his socks.  He looks up toward the podium where Kovarian is standing, and—yes, she's there, even though she should've ran far away if she had the chance, even though it's impossibly foolish for her to be there.

Amy is wearing a set of black clothes that probably weren't part of her attire on the fleet, and her child is pressed against her chest in a papoose that most likely came from 21st century Earth.  One arm is wrapped protectively around her.

Madame Kovarian looks more confused than the Doctor feels, and she has the guards surround her in an instant.  Amy does not look upset by this, but almost triumphant.  The Doctor can only assume that means she has a plan.

It's just a shame the entire situation is impossible.

 

* * *

 

While the woman with the eyepiece is busy trying to figure out why her prisoner didn't just escape, the girl in black is smiling to herself, watching listening to the scene play out in her head.  She's not sure where the Doctor is—or even if he looks the same as she remembers.  But she's sure she'll find him again soon.  She has tricks now that would have seemed impossible to her in the past.

She notices the man in the Roman soldier uniform first, in an obscure corner of the room.  He's of average height, with a Roman nose and dark hair.  He's handsome, if she's being honest, but she hasn't really been interested in anyone since…  She doesn't allow herself to think the name.  Not here, not now.  But always, always later.  She'll dream of him again soon, that she knows.

There's no doubt in her mind, however, that the man before her is the legendary Centurion.

She's at an odd angle for him, and she knows he can't see her.  She calls to him before approaching because she's not stupid and she's heard the stories.  "'Ey, Centurion!" she yells since she knows the hallway is deserted.

He rounds to her, and she has her hands in the air.  "Easy," she warns him.  "I'm not a threat."  In the sense of full honesty, she hastily adds, "Well, not to you, anyway."

His eyes narrow.  "Then why are you here?"

She grins under the hood.  "To ask a favor.  It's the least you could do, seein' as I'm about to rescue your wife and all."

His eyes light up in recognition.  "You're the one who released her," he says, and it's not a question.  She only nods in response, and after a long pause, he finally asks, "What can I do for you, then?"

She drops the backpack, sliding it across the floor to him unceremoniously.  "When you start runnin', mate, remember to take that with you," she demands.  "And don't tell the Doctor I'm here—I don't want him to know yet."  She offers a wicked smile she knows he can't see before walking away and saying over her shoulder, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an appearance to make."

 

* * *

 

The Doctor is still reeling and can't help but admire that Kovarian has the presence of mind to even speak.  "How did you get out?" she demands of Amy.

Amy smiles at her.  "That's a good question.  I'm not sure, honestly.  Some girl in black tells me to run, I run."  She pauses for a moment.  "But she has a message for both you and the Doctor, since he's here and all."

Another startled flurry of movement, and the Doctor can't help but wonder who the impossible girl is that has freed Amy single-handedly, upending his entire plan.  He can't think of anyone who has done that since…  He doesn't allow himself to think the name; it's too fresh (even though it's been so long) and too painful, and those wounds run deep.

"What is it?" Kovarian asks finally, after quieting the troops.

Amy shrugs.  "Well, it's more of a question, really," she admits.  "A question, I'm told, that will change your life—or end it, depending on how you answer it.  And you're allowed to think on it for a bit, if you'd like."

The Doctor can't help smiling.  Whoever the girl is, she's quite the showman (or show-woman?) to stage something like this because she has Kovarian hanging on Amy's every word in fear, and the second shoe hasn't even dropped yet.  And the Doctor has no doubt that it will drop soon.

"What is the question?" she practically shrieks.

Amy smiles, and it's not friendly—it's predatory.  "She told me to ask you, 'Who's afraid of the big, Bad Wolf?'"

The Doctor's hearts definitely skip beats at that impossible question, and he can't stop his giant Time Lord brain from thinking one thought with every cell, one thought that he hadn't let himself think for so long:   _Rose_.

Vaguely, he is aware of Jack's surprised statement into the earpiece, "Holy shit, it's  _Rose_."

"Who's Rose?" Rory asks then, and he is shushed and asked to maintain silence on the line.

He's even more surprised when a consciousness presses against his, and he is about to fight it when he realizes it's familiar.   _Found you_ , is all it says, but he knows who it is and he's not worried now.  As if to assure him, though, it adds,  _I'll keep you safe, my Doctor.  Be ready to run._   He doesn't understand how she can be telepathic, as he thought that impossible, but that's a question he'll save for later, when all his girls (and Rory, of course) are safe.

At the podium, Kovarian laughs, mostly in relief.  "That's the question?" she scoffs.  "Is that supposed to be a message?  I'm not afraid of the Bad Wolf.  That's just a fairytale."

"If you believe that, then you're a fool and you deserve everything that's coming to you."  The voice is new to the Doctor's new ears, but so old and so familiar and so…  _impossibly ageless_ , and that concerns him.  The thick Cockney accent is chipper and carefree, and if Kovarian knew anything, that would scare her immensely.  Because the woman belonging to the voice never walks into anything carefree.

_Night will fall and drown the sun when a good man goes to war._

Everyone turns to the voice, and he sees her again for the first time in so many years—too long they've been separated by destiny, and it's only now that he realizes how much he's missed her.  Her face is covered by a hood, but he knows it's her and he's just glad she's there.  He had wanted to believe she wouldn't miss something like this—that she would come to help him, even from across the Void—but he'd been too afraid to hope.

She's at the corner of the podium, but she steps forward to face Kovarian.  "Who are you, and why have you come here?" Kovarian demands.  "Do you work for the Doctor?  Because he has sent you to you death."

She laughs in Kovarian's face, pulling back the hood of her jacket to reveal that so familiar face that the Doctor has missed from his life for ages.  Her hair is still blonde, her eyes are still brown, and she hasn't aged a day, but her eyes are like his now:  ancient.  She's older—too impossibly old for a human—and he realizes that she's more important than he thought she was.  She's no longer simply human, and that scares him because it's probably his fault, and hers is another life he's ruined by accident.

"The Doctor didn't send me, mate," she says, and the friendly familiar sounds anything but in her mouth.  "I came because the Doctor  _needs_  me.  And those are two very different things."  She tilted her head to the side.  "As for my name?  I have many names—all throughout time and space.  My enemies call me the Valiant Child.  Earth knows me as its Defender.  The Doctor calls me Rose.  But you'd probably know me best by one of only two names the Daleks fear: the Bad Wolf."

Kovarian takes a step back.  "That's just a legend," she says, mostly to assure herself.  "The stories say you've absorbed the Time Vortex—no one can survive that."

She smiles at the woman's ignorance.  "I didn't just look into the Vortex, Kovarian—the Vortex looked into me, too."  She pauses.  "There's a title, though, that they always seem to forget."  She thinks again for a moment before correcting herself.  "Well, not a title, but a warning."

Kovarian stares at her, her only visible eye narrowing.  "What warning?" she asks, a deep dread settling into her tone.

Rose Tyler offers a single predatory smile.  "Throughout time and space, stories are told of the Doctor, the man that defends Time itself, who is the savior and destroyer alike of many worlds.  He protects the universe throughout all of time."  The words feel almost like praise to him and he feels a warm feeling from his head to his toes.  She pauses, her expression turning serious again when she speaks.  "But who protects the Doctor?"

All is silent for a minute before she answers her own question.  "I do, mate.  I'm the bloody Bad Wolf, and no one dares hurt  _my_  Time Lord."  The use of the word 'my' runs all through the Doctor as he hears it.  The tone to her voice when she emphasizes it is wild, feral, and highly possessive in a way he doesn't think she's capable of.  An involuntary, smug smirk crosses his features, even though no one can see it.

Kovarian laughs again.  "You?  You're just a child!  What can you possibly do?"

Rose smiles again at her ignorance.  "It's not a matter of what I can do," she corrects.  "It's a matter of what you've already done.  You've exploited his mercy, Madame Kovarian.  If I don't rewrite time right now, you will steal this child and turn her into the Doctor's greatest enemy and greatest ally:  River Song."

_Friendship dies and true love lies…_

The Doctor holds back a startled gasp.  River is the child, and she is going to kill him.  That's why she's in the Stormcage—she kills him in the future (well, his future, her past).  But that doesn't matter to him.  River Song should grow up happy and complete, and Amy and Rory should never have to know the pain of losing a daughter to time.  God knows he'd lost enough to the same cruel mistress.

Rose's mental voice presses into his mind again.   _If I rewrite the timelines, you will lose so much, but you will also gain some in return.  The choice is yours, Doctor, and I will do as you ask._

He can't help a small, humorless chuckle.  It isn't really a choice, is it?  He'd rather have Amy and Rory happy, to let their daughter grow up in a happy home with a happy life.  He is so very old and he has known happiness in his life, so his own fate doesn't matter, but their child deserves that same taste of happiness he's had.  Finally, after a long moment, he returns her question with,  _Save her, Rose.  Give her the life she deserves._

Rose nods once in response to his thought, then turns back to Kovarian.  "You would torture the Doctor, who is everything good in the universe.  You would cause him pain, guilt, and suffering."  The snarl on her face is ferocious.  "And that, Kovarian, makes me very,  _very_  angry."

Kovarian scoffs.  "You are a good person, child, and good people are not to be feared.  They have far too many rules."

Again Jack doesn't hesitate to comment on the situation.  "Bad mistake," he mutters.  The Doctor can't help but agree mentally; he's never seen Rose this angry before, and he still clearly remembers how cross she was with him after Versailles.  It still haunts him now and again.

Rose laughs darkly.  "That's where you're wrong, Kovarian.  I don't have any rules.  Or regrets.  And I'm not the kind of person you want to make angry."  Suddenly, her eyes glow gold and everyone gasps as a wind picks up around her.  She looks completely and impossibly ethereal; in that moment, she's not human or Time Lord or anything the Doctor's ever seen—except for once on Satellite Five.  When she speaks again, it's in dual tones.  "You are evil, Kovarian.  You would exploit his mercy and use that mercy to torment him for the rest of his days."  She steps closer, each step painfully slow, toward the woman.

_…night will fall and the dark will rise when a good man goes to war._

The Doctor moves toward Rose, too, hoping with every step—every breath, every beat of his two hearts—that this isn't a dream and she's here, in front of him.

He barks a command over the line when the thought crosses his mind.  "She's changing the timeline and there's bound to be fallout.  Get yourselves out of here the way you came and be quick about it.  Jack, Rory, get the Pond girls to the TARDIS."

"Shoot her," Kovarian commands to her guards.

The Doctor chokes on his own cry in surprise.  They can't kill her, he tells himself, not now, not so soon after seeing her again.  Not when they are so, so close to becoming what they once were again.

Colonel Manton fires once in her direction, but the bullet stops short and the Doctor realizes she's actually isolating and pausing time.  That will probably kill her as easily as any bullet, but he can't bring himself to think about that because a world without Rose Tyler isn't a world at all.  Both the gun and the bullet disappear in a flash of golden light.

"I will show you mercy," the Bad Wolf says in both of her voices at once.  "If you do not wish to die this day, lay your weapons down."  Most of the guards do as she asks, only because she commands so much power and fear and mercy all at once.  "I am not cruel," she continues, "which is why I allow you to live.  I want you all to remember this day, to let it live at the forefront of your minds.  I want you to tell the story of how you tried to hurt the Doctor in the cruelest of ways."  She turns glowing gold eyes on them, throwing a hand out to stop a fleeing Madame Kovarian in time the same way she stopped that bullet.  "I want you to tell the story of the woman that protects the Doctor, the one who will even control and rewrite time to champion the last Time Lord in the universe."

With that, she offers them one more command:  " _Run._ "

They do.  All of them, except for the Doctor's army that has already started running at his command and Madame Kovarian, still stuck in time.

Time resumes for Kovarian then, and she falls on her knees in front of the Bad Wolf.  "Please," she says once, quietly.

The Bad Wolf laughs in dual tones.  "You would exploit my mercy just as you would his," she practically snarls, "except I have none to offer you.  The Wolf answers only to the Storm, and this is his will.  For him—and  _only_  him—I purge you from existence." With a single flick of her wrist, the woman disappears in golden light.  The ship, too, starts to fall apart, under the sheer weight of events.  It was supposed to be a fixed point, and now time itself is breaking down around the ship in protest of the changes Rose made.

_Demons run when the child is saved.  The battle is won and the danger is braved._

Just as suddenly as the Bad Wolf appeared, she is gone, turned back into the pink and yellow girl who has been missing from the Doctor's life for so long.  She stumbles, exhausted, and falls off the podium, unconscious.

The Doctor catches her in his awaiting arms.  "Come along, Ponds, Jack!" he yells frantically.  "Back to the TARDIS, and quickly!"

For some reason he doesn't understand, the TARDIS materializes in front of him, so close he nearly runs into it.  He pushes the doors open with his elbow, Jack close on his heels, and he can hear Amy and Rory following.

When he lays the girl down on the console room floor, she's not breathing and her fragile little human heart is no longer beating.  The TARDIS, seeming to understand her pilot is too distracted to fly them properly, flies itself into the Time Vortex, to wherever it thinks they should go next.

Frantically, the Doctor breathes into her mouth, presses his palms against her heart in quick succession, praying she'll wake up.  He's waited far too long, and he needs her far more than he'll ever be able to admit, and he just needs to hear her voice again.  He needs to hear her say he's still rude and still not ginger.  He needs her to make fun of his bowtie, his chin, his hair—anything.

But mostly, he needs her to say forever.  And he needs her to mean it.

It's a demand that would be impossible to ask of anyone else, but she's traveled to and from a parallel universe three times and lived after absorbing the Time Vortex.  Rose Tyler laughs in the face of impossible.

"Please, Rose," he pleads between breaths.  He's a little hysterical by this point, and he knows the Ponds are watching him with concern, but he just doesn't care anymore.  Only one thing matters to him now, and she's not breathing.  "Come on, Rose Tyler," he demands while pressing on her heart again, "you impossible girl.  Please."

He tries again and again and again, all the while begging her to wake up, to smile at him one more time.  He feels something wet on his cheeks as the weight of despair settles around him.  

He feels Jack's hand weight down on his shoulder.  "Doctor…" he tries sadly, unable to finish the thought.

He shakes his head, waving him off, not focusing on anything else.  "No," he says firmly.  "No, she's not—"  He can't bring himself to finish the thought.  "She's survived more impossible things than this, Jack."  Finally, he leans down beside her ear and whispers those words he shouldn't have left unspoken all those years ago:  "Rose Tyler, I love you."

With a startled intake of air, she sits up, eyes wide, and he can hear a collective gasp from behind him.  "Bloody hell, that hurt!" she exclaims.  "Oh, I'm not  _ever_  doing that again."  She looks up at the very stunned Doctor, tapping his nose and smiling a very tired-looking tongue-touched smile.  "Not even for you." Shaking her head tiredly, she says to Jack, "Blimey, I don't know how you do it all the time."

Jack laughs before grabbing her up in a hug, pushing the Doctor aside.  "Good to see ya again, Rosie," he says with that trademark flirt in his voice.  "Quite a display back there—reminded me of Satellite Five."

The Doctor stands, running a hand over his face as Rose laughs and responds, "You, too, Jack.  I'm just glad I didn't have to bring you back to life again.  I'm gettin' too old for that."  He laughs as they pull out of the embrace and then he stands, offering her a hand and pulling her to her feet.

The Doctor doesn't waste any time with awkward hellos or confused reunion statements.  He gathers her up in a huge hug, glad to find that she's still alive.  She still fits in his arms just right, though he's a different man—and she, apparently, is a different woman.

But he is still the Doctor, and she is still Rose, so they are still perfect together.

He feels her hot breath against the lapel of his jacket, and she holds onto him as if her life depends on it.  "God, how I've missed you," she says, wrapping her arms more tightly around him.

He returns the gesture before saying, "Not nearly as much as I've missed you, love."

"It's a miracle I've found you again," she breathes into his tweed jacket.

He pulls her away to look her in the eyes, so he can repeat the words he once said to Rory not so long ago.  "The universe is big," he whispers to her.  "It's vast and complicated and ridiculous, and sometimes—very rarely—impossible things just happen and we call them miracles. That's the theory, anyway. Nine hundred years I've lived, never seen one yet, but this would do me."

And he hugs her again.  They stand like that a long time—just Rose and the Doctor, and all as it should always be.

_Demons shiver to their core when a good man goes to war._

**Author's Note:**

> Just as a side note, the lines in italics are from the episode "A Good Man Goes to War," but the last two are mine. I hope no one minds, but they had to be rewritten to fit.


End file.
